Improvement in lantern-guards



BROWN, Jr., & LOWRY.-

Lantern Guard.

Patented Oct. '24, .865.

. W whw UNITED STATES PATENT Orrrcn.

THOMAS BROWN, J R., AND JOSEPH L. LOWRY, OF PITTSBURG, PA., ASSIGNORS TOSAID BROWN AND JAMES MCLAIN, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN LANTERN-GUARDS.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, THOMAS BROWN, Jr., and JosEPH L. LOWRY, both ofPittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Lantern-Guards; and we dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming partof this specification, in which Figure 1 is a side view of a lanternwith our improved guard attached. Fig. 2 is a representation of theguard-ring detached.

In both figures like letters of reference are used to denote similarparts.

Our invention is an improvement on the lantern-guards for which LettersPatent of the United States were granted to Thomas Brown, Jr., and JamesMcLain on the 24th day of May, 1864. As in the lantern described in thepatent referred to the glass or globe is not eemented to the lower partor lamp-piece, or to the upper part or cap of the lantern, but the 7cap, globe, and lamp-piece are united and held together by the guard,which may be easily unfastened so as to remove the glass globe orreplace it when cracked or broken.

Our improvement in the lantern-guard of Thomas Brown, Jr., just referredto consists in the mode of attaching the guard-ribs to the top andbottom parts of the lantern and holding those parts in place on theglass globe, which we do by dispensing with the slide and pins whichenter the loops at the lower extremity of the guard-ribs, and fasteningthe ribs to the upper and lower parts of the lantern by means of a loopat one end and a hook at the other end of each rib, in combination witha detached guard-ring, which is placed around the glass globe of thelantern within the ribs,

so as to press them outward, and thus by drawing them tight prevent theribs from coming unhooked, and at the same time hold the cap piece andbottom piece of the lantern firmly in place on the glass globe.

To enable others skilled in the art to use our improved lantern-guard,we will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

In the drawings, ais the metallic bottom part or lamp-piece of thelantern, into which is inserted, from below, thelamp or candle holder.I) is the metallic cap or top piece, and c is the glass globe, which hasan annular bead, d, projecting from its outer surface within a quarterof an inch or thereabout from the top of the globe, and a similar head,(1, projecting from its outer surface near the lower end. These beads dand it serve as ledges, against which rest the upper edge of thelamp-piece a and the lower edge of the cap-piece b, so that when the capand bottom piece are drawn toward each other by the ribs 6 of theguard-frame the glass globe is held securely in place between them. InFig. 1 the upper part of the glass globe c and lower part of thecap-piece I), are represented in section to show the manner in which thecap-piece rests on the upper bead, d.

A flange or apron, g. surrounds and projects from the cap-piece b, and asimilar flange or apron, h, surrounds and projects from the bottompiece, a, to which the ribs 0 of the guard are looped or hooked, eachrib 0 extending from the lower to the upper apron. If preferred,however, the place of the aprons g and h may be supplied by loops orstaples projecting from and attached to the cap-piece b and bottompiece, a, at proper intervals.

The ribs 6 0, 8w, are made of wire curved outward, are looped at theirlower end to the apron h of the bottom piece, and are hooked to theaprong of the cap-piece b, or may be hooked to the apron of the bottompiece and looped to the apron of the cap, if preferred, suitable holesbeing made near the edge of the aprons g and h for that purpose. Each ofthe ribs cehas a kink, k, to receive the guard-ring f, which surroundsthe glass globe c at its widest part and at'a suitable distance from itscircumference. The guard-ringf has corresponding kinks, k, (see Fig. 2,)to receive the ribs 0 at equal distances apart, and the guard-ring isheld in place by the tension of the ribs 66, &c., which are not fastenedin any way to it, the kinks in the ribs and ring serving to keep both intheir proper relative position. The guard-ringfis not an unbrokenannulus, but is a piece of wire having a sleeve, '5, soldered onto oneend, into which the other extremity is inserted when the ring is inplace.

In Fig. 2 the, guard-rin g is represented with the small end removedfrom the sleeve 6, and the sleeve is shown partly in section.

The lantern and guard-ring being construct-- the aprong of the cap-pieceI), while the ring fis held in place by the kinks in it and in the ribs.When all the ribs butthe last one are hooked onto the apron g the smallend of the guard-ring f is inserted into its sleeve 1', which presses itoutward against the ribs 6 e, drawing toward each other the cap-pieceand bottom piece of the lantern, which, being between them, are thusfirmly held between the top and bottom pieces, a and b, of the frame.The last of the ribs is then hooked onto the apron g, which may easilybe done by a little pressure, and the lantern, with its guard complete,is ready for use.

To remove the lantern-guard it is only necessary to unhook one of theribs, and then to separate the ends of the guard-rin g, when the ribsmay be all successively unhooked, and the lantern comes apart.

WVe are aware that lantern-guards have been made with a separateguard-ringplaced around and outside of the guard-ribs, so as to bindthem together and hold them in place, the extremities of the ribs beingattached to a separate band at top and bottom; but this device we do notuse, as in our guard it is necessary that the ribs should be pressedoutward from the center of the lantern, so as to draw the cap and bottompiece toward each other and prevent the ribs becoming unlooped.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

The combination of the ribs 0, hooked or looped at their upper end tothe cap-piece and at their lower end to the bottom piece of the lantern,with the detached cut guard-ring f when so arranged inside of the ribsas to force them outward, and thus tighten the ribs and draw the cap andbottom pieces of the lantern toward each other, with the glass betweenthem, substantially as hereinbefore described.

In testimony whereof we, the said THOMAS BROWN, J r., and JOSEPH L.LOWRY, have hereunto set our hands.

THOS. BROWN, J R.

JOSEPH L. LOVVRY.

Witnesses: W. BAKEWELL, W. D. LEWIS.

